Hubert
What about this idea?
To display the chart notes right in front of the navigator, we create a mark for each chart, named just "chart-number".gpx, or similar. The "description" would contain the release notes. Check my post about the noaa wx buoys in the weather thread, for some ideas how this could be done. Marine Weather Forecasting
The "Additional information" dialog would contain a link to the chart corrections.OpenCPN would be patched to load a gpx file with the same name as kap file if they where in the same directory......
The "Mark/WP Properties" dialog would be patched so that the "Description" window increased one line in size.

Thomas

What if someone has a .kap of the same chart from another source? Likely to also have the file name the same, as well.

Folks, I am having a very hard time understanding why anyone cares about the OpenNGA charts being compatible with anything but OpenCPN. It is not like any of the commercial chart plotter companies are going to pay to use these charts. The real users of these charts are the cruisers that can't afford a set of commercial electronic charts. Why not take the charts up a notch and make them more usable by the intended users. And, at the same time provide OpenCPN with a chart set that is easy (efficient) to display. Let the commercial and other open source developers adapt their projects to use these charts. Why not expand your horizons and make OpenNGA the best electronic chart set available?

Folks, I am having a very hard time understanding why anyone cares about the OpenNGA charts being compatible with anything but OpenCPN. It is not like any of the commercial chart plotter companies are going to pay to use these charts. The real users of these charts are the cruisers that can't afford a set of commercial electronic charts. Why not take the charts up a notch and make them more usable by the intended users. And, at the same time provide OpenCPN with a chart set that is easy (efficient) to display. Let the commercial and other open source developers adapt their projects to use these charts. Why not expand your horizons and make OpenNGA the best electronic chart set available?

If they have the ".kap" extension,they should act like them.It'd be pretty rude if some jpegs only worked in Microsoft Paint but you and your operating system couldn't tell until you tried to look at them in the Gimp,Irfanview or Fastone...not exactly the open source ideal.

But !-a new extension...maybe ".opcn" or ".nga", and you'd have something.You'd be free to do what you wanted and others would include it or not as they wished.

If they have the ".kap" extension,they should act like them.It'd be pretty rude if some jpegs only worked in Microsoft Paint but you and your operating system couldn't tell until you tried to look at them in the Gimp,Irfanview or Fastone...not exactly the open source ideal.

But !-a new extension...maybe ".opcn" or ".nga", and you'd have something.You'd be free to do what you wanted and others would include it or not as they wished.

Aren't there already sufficient incompatible file formats and solutions to add yet another one? Don't scare the users! They have already enough problems.

A portfolio of quality charts that are freely available. The NGAs are a part of it.
That's the aim - for me at last.

With respect to the problem of kap files with a different origin:
We might add a hash/MD5 fingerprint to "our" charts and link the additional property file to that. The checksum would also be handy to distinguish between version and modified charts.

...but lots of good apps have succumbed to the temptation...Open Office,the Gimp(xcf?)...OpenCPN Plugins are like that already,so maybe a plugin before you can use the charts..darn!-the idea's growing on me and now I'll have to find someone that can cut it off...I'm blaming VikingSailor for this

Really,so far,the thing (so far)has been only about a Close cover before Striking,and Always wear a helmet before going Out of Doors, disclaimer.Whether it's "woe to them" that don't have it plainly written on their product is not really sure to me.

Just musing,but I won't wear a helmet riding my folding bicycle,whatever caution is painted on it.
Modifying the bicycle so I MUST wear a helmet means the bicycle doesn't get ridden unless...unless it's a really,really fast and super bicycle that comes with a helmet I really,really like.Free charts might just fall into this category...especially if I can just change the extension to ".kap" and they'll be as they were!Of course,that's what'd happen,out there as a batch and nobody'd bother with Clutter added evermore...
Hate to say it but The Watermark is a sure thing.

...but lots of good apps have succumbed to the temptation...Open Office,the Gimp(xcf?)...OpenCPN Plugins are like that already,so maybe a plugin before you can use the charts..

StarOffice, the source of OpenOffice/LibreOffice was a commercial product with a proprietary format - that is now after some loops an ISO format. They achieved to create a standard.
And GIMP: should they have chosen .psd? Inkscape is using svg - standard.

And in our case I don't see what we might gain inventing formats. Thomas made a clever proposal how to use it.

Hi and congratulations to everyone involved in the ongoing development of this chart portfolio for use with OPCN.

May I suggest to the development team that it would be a nice Christmas present for the OPCN community if the first release (in full or in part) of the chart set could be scheduled for the end of the year - it would be a nice start to the new year. The Christmas break would also give an opportunity to 'play around' with them and get used to them.

As I understand it from the thread there are now only a small percentage of the charts that may require further work but surely this could be could be easily accommodated whilst still releasing the majority of the charts.

We are now 6 months on and despite all the work and effort put into to this it is apparent from this thread that there is no actual plan or schedule to achieving a release of the charts.

It would be very much appreciated if the development team could make a statement on the proposed release schedule to the OPCN community at large.

the charts done up to now - some 2000+ are downloadable atOpenCPN.info (English)
one by one after registering
and
being conscious that we are still working on these charts.

So, if somebody wants to try out charts for a region he his interested in he is very welcome to download those.
We are curious about comments, critics and findings. And people that want to work with us to optimize the portfolio.

You are all doing an excellent job!
But like dougwm10 I can't see any downloadable .kap files from the link you have given.
There's lot's of info about charts yet to be done but where are there completed charts?